Nonprofit Organization
British Red Cross
Using Meta Advantage+ sales campaigns and A/B testing to drive giving campaigns
The British Red Cross is a neutral, independent and impartial humanitarian organization. For the last 150 years, they have been helping millions of people in the United Kingdom and around the world get the support they need when a crisis strikes.
Challenge
The British Red Cross continually seeks innovative and efficient methods to engage existing supporters and expand their reach during crucial fundraising periods.
One persistent challenge is the increasing difficulty of acquiring new regular donors. Recognizing this, the organization leveraged ASC to experiment with a fresh strategy—targeting Meta users most likely to engage with their regular giving campaigns and ultimately convert to ongoing supporters.
Solution
To diversify their buying strategies, the British Red Cross implemented a 4-week long A/B test comparing their traditional Manual Build campaign setup vs Meta Advantage+ Sales Campaign (ASC) setup.
The Manual Build followed traditional campaign feature, consisting of
- A broad audience
- A long-term change lookalike (LAL) audience
- A consolidated audience consisting of LALs of webpage visitors, all donors and active RGs.
ASC primarily targets audiences identified by Meta's AI algorithms, using data such as past ad interactions, website visits, purchase history, and demographics. This approach aims to reach people most likely to convert, focusing on broad, high-intent audiences based on machine learning insights rather than strictly defined demographics or interests.
Using Meta’s in-platform experiments, campaigns were split with the key metric of driving a lower cost per action (CPA). To ensure fairness, both campaigns were split, consisting of the same creative and copy.
Results
- After a period of 4 weeks,* the data deemed the ASC campaign the winner, delivering a £20 lower CPA and a confidence level of 91%
- This resulted in an 18% increase of the forecasted number of conversions, with +43% more regular gifts (RG) donated, making this an incredibly successful Q1 for the campaign.
- The A/B test also confirmed ASC’s ability to deliver a higher number of clicks, lower CPM and a 0.10% higher CVR.
- The campaign had a £1.42 CPM lower than forecast, a higher CTR and a stronger than expected CVR of 8.5%.
£20
Lower cost per action (CPA) using Meta Advantage+ Sales Campaign
vs. the Manual Build campaign setup
+43%
Increase in regular gifts donated
£1.42
Lower CPM than forecast
*Results are self-reported and not identifiably repeatable. Generally expected individual results will differ.
"At the British Red Cross, growing our regular donor base is essential to sustaining our vital humanitarian work. By A/B testing our BAU approach against Meta Advantage+ sales campaign, we saw a significant uplift in performance, lowering acquisition costs while reaching engaged supporters.
This meant we could raise more funds to ensure we’re there for people in crisis."
